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Francis Russell Hart, F. R, G, S, 




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BY 



FRANCIS RUSSELL HART, F. R. G. S. 



REPHINTED FROM 
THE JOURNAL OF AMERICAN HISTORT 

VOLUME 1, NUMBER 4 
COPTRIGHT ASSIGNED TO THE AUTHOR 



A.SSOOIATED PUBI.ISHBKS OP AMERICAIT HECORDS 
NEW HAVES', COITirEOTICTTT 
190T 



Person) 

12 J e '08 



i'tr Jranris Irak? 

By Francis Rtjssel.l, Hart, F. R. G. S. 



^HB^ URING the last quarter of 
^ ^ the sixteenth century 
^k —^ Spain was the strongest 
^B — I of European powers, and 
" ^ ^ Phihp the most powerful 
^^^^ of monarchs. In the New 
World, Spanish rule was 
absolute from Florida to the Rio de la 
Plata on the Atlantic coast, and from 
the Isthmus south on the Western 
coast of South America ; in fact, a 
papal grant had conveyed the whole 
of America to the Spanish Crown. 
A small French settlement on 'the St. 
Lawrence in the North, and an expe- 
dition to Labrador by Frobisher, un- 
der the patronage of Queen Elizabeth, 
showed that the somewhat arrogant 
claim of Spain to the whole of Amer- 
ica was not uncontested. 

Protestant England under Eliza- 
beth longed not only for a share of the 
rich plunder which the exploitation of 
the New World was gaining for 
Spain, but also for an opportunity to 
cross swords with Catholicism. On 
both sides the adventurous spirit was 
strangely mixed with religious enthu- 
siasm. Prayers and piracy were 
closely, and often with sincerity, 
blended. The fact that no commerce 
except with Spain was permitted in 
the New World made trade by English 
ships and men possible only when car- 
ried on by privateers or armed vessels. 
The inevitable result of these condi- 
tions was that English ships ostensibly 
fitted for trade turned to plundering 
the rich galleons of Spain, giving rise 
to reprisals with terrible excesses on 
both sides. 

The story of the great seamen of 
Elizabeth's reign — -Drake, Hawkins 
and Frobisher, is almost the history of 
the England of their day ; a story re- 
plete with the romance of dangerous 
adventure, reckless courage, cruelty 
and craft, but none the less the story 
of brave and gallant men who fought 
battles not only for their own but for 
succeeding generations. 

Upon Drake's return from his great 



voyage around the world, begun in 
1577 and ended in 1580, he was re- 
ceived with great enthusiasm by both 
queen and country. On this voyage 
he had sacked the unguarded coast 
towns of Peru and Chili, and it is said 
returned with over half a million ster- 
ling of treasure taken chiefly from the 
Spanish possessions. That Drake 
himself was knighted and his com- 
pany feted by all England, was not un- 
naturally received as an insult by 
Philip, and added fuel to the flames 
of war already kindled. There could 
be now no further question of concili- 
ating Spain, and every effort was 
made by Elizabeth and her sailor coun- 
sellors to build up a naval establish- 
ment of a strength equal to that of 
Philip, his naval power having been 
almost doubled through the acquisi- 
tion of Portugal by the failure of its 
royal line. To make havoc with the 
Spanish possessions in the New World 
appealed to both the political sagacity 
of the queen and to the business-like 
judgment of those imbued with the 
buccaneer spirit of the age. 

It has been necessary to touch thus 
briefly on the general conditions 
affecting England and Spain at the 
time of the expedition against Carta- 
gena and other towns of the Spanish 
Main, in order to more justly con- 
ceive the true value and motived of an 
attack which has been variously de- 
scribed as a great legitimate naval ex- 
pedition and as a series of wanton 
piratical seizures. To more ade- 
quately gain a proper perspective it 
will be necessary to also touch briefly 
on the earlier history of Drake. 

Few men whose deeds have played 
such an important and forceful part in 
actual events, have had associated with 
their names so much of almost legend- 
ary romanticism as has that of Fran- 
cis Drake. Knighted and made an 
admiral by Elizabeth, and dubbed a 
pirate by the Spaniards, he was in 
truth a mixture of the great soldier- 
admiral and the adventurous bucca- 



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neer. His father, Edmund Drake, is 
said to have been at one time a sailor, 
but be this as it may, he liad become 
vicar of Upchurch, Hving near Tavis- 
tock, under the patronage of the Earl 
of Bedford. It was the earl's son, 
Francis 'Russell, who endowed the son 
born to Edmund Drake with his own 
name. 

Francis Drake was born about 1545. 
His early associations were strongly 
anti-Catholic. As a boy he was ap- 
prenticed to the master and owner of 
a small channel coasting vessel, and 
appears to have been treated as a son 
by the master, who upon his death not 
very long after left the vessel to him. 

Sir John Hawkins, said by some to 
have been a kinsman of Drake, had 
been early engaged in the slave-trade 
and in trading expeditions to the West 
Indies and Spanish Main. In 1567 
he visited the Spanish Main, and only 
succeeded in landing and selling his 
negroes at Rio de la Hacha after over- 
coming armed resistance. Fie finally 
at Cartagena abandoned this com- 
merce. This voyage was in many re- 
spects unfortunate, and it was also 
alleged that many acts of bad faith on 
the part of the Spaniards brought 
great hardships, sufferings and death 
to many of Hawkins' unhappy com- 
panions. Hawkins himself says in his 
account of the expedition : "If all the 
miseries and troublesome affairs of 
this sorrowful voyage should be per- 
fectly and thoroughly written, there 
should need a painful man with his 
pen, and as great a time as he had that 
wrote the lives and deaths of the mar- 
tyrs." 

Great indignation was felt in Eng- 
land over the mishaps of this voyage 
and the treatment of the voyagers by 
the Spaniards. Drake had taken part 
in this expedition in command of the 
"Judith," having previously sold his 
own little coaster and used the pro- 
ceeds, with his other earnings, for the 
proper outfitting for this voyage with 
Hawkins. Having lost everything in 
this unhappy venture, from which he 
barely escaped wi^-h his life, Drake be- 



came an ardent supporter of the doc- 
trine, soon popular in England, that 
it was lawful to recover from the 
Spaniards that which their treachery 
had taken from the English traders. 
In 1570 Drake again went to the 
West Indies, this time with two ships, 
the "Dragon" and the "Swan," and 
again in 1571 with the "Swan" alone. 
These voyages appear to have been 
mainly for acquiring information, or 
at least, that appears to have been their 
chief result.^ With the experience 
gained by these two voyages and the 
previous one with Hawkins, he sailed 
from Plymouth in May, 1572, with the 
"Pacha" of seventy tons, and "Swan" 
of twenty-five tons, with total crews of 
seventy-three men and boys. By the 
end of July he reached Nombre de 
Dios, and after a sharp but brief en- 
gagement, in which he himself was 
wounded, captured the town. From 
Nombre de Dios he sailed along the 
coast towards Cartagena, capturing 
several well-laden vessels on the way, 
but making no stop of consequence un- 
til arriving at the Isthmus of Darien. 
There he found settlements of the 
Cimarrones (or Maroons), negroes 
who had escaped from slavery, with 
whom he entered into intercourse and 
by the chief of whom he was shown 
from a "goodly and great high tree" 
on a commanding height a sight of the 
Pacific ocean. Drake is reported to 
have "besought Almighty God of his 
goodness to give him life and leave to 
sail in an English ship on that sea." 
This same chief guided and helped in 
an expedition overland to intercept the 
trains of mules which brought treas- 
ure from Panama to Nombre de Dios. 
Beyond taking possession of a small 
town on the road and destroying some 
property the expedition appears to 
have been fruitless, and it was only 
after great hardships and dangers that 
Drake and his men regained their 
ships. He returned to Plymouth 
from this voyage on August 9, 1573, 
somewhat enriched, but with his am- 
bition in no way satisfied. A val- 
orous and venturesome seaman 



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named John Oxenham, whose name 
is closely associated with the stir- 
ring events of that day in the Carib- 
bean littoral, had served under Drake 
in this expedition. About two years 
later Oxenham, with one ship and sev- 
enty men, retraced the course of Drake 
to Darien with the object of inter- 
cepting one of the richly laden mule 
trains from Panama. Being informed 
by the Cimarrones that the trains were 
now accompanied by a strong guard, 
he abandoned this plan and, helped by 
a few of the Cimarrones, marched to 
the Pacific side, built himself a small 
pinnace, and gained the distinction 
of being the first Englishman to sail 
upon the Pacific ocean.' In December, 
1577, Drake started on his great trip 
of circumnavigation, already referred 
to, with a fleet consisting of the "Peli- 
can" and four smaller vessels, having 
a total complement of one hundred and 
sixty-four men. That the plans for 
this voyage had the full, if secret, con- 
currence of the queen, there seems little 
doubt, notwithstanding the fact that 
one of its real if not avowed ob- 
jects was to prey upon the colonies of 
a nation with which technical peace 
existed. The story of this voyage has 
no place here, but its great success 
from both a naval and "profit-sharing" 
standpoint, and the enthusiasm with 
which the voyagers were- received on 
their return in September, 1580, 
"richly fraught with gold, silver, silk, 
pearls and precious stones," added 
greatly to the prestige of Drake. 

For the next four years Drake re- 
mained in England, becoming mayor 
of Plymouth for a brief period and 
then entering Parliament as member 
for Bossiney. 

Early in 1585, Elizabeth could no 
longer blind herself to the certainty 
of the intention of Spain to attack 
England. A fleet of English ships 
laden with corn had been unfairly 
seized, and swift retribution was 
planned. Under letters of marque, 
Drake gathered about him at Ply- 
mouth the most formidable squadron 
of privateers ever gotten together. 



consisting of twenty-five ships with a 
total of twenty-three hundred sailors 
and soldiers. His vice-admiral was 
the doughty Martin Frobisher; his 
rear-admiral, Francis Knollys, and 
Lieutenant-General Christopher Car- 
leill was in command of the ten com- 
panies of land troops included in the 
complement. 

The fleet sailed from Plymouth on 
the twelfth of September, 1585. After 
threatening Bayona and Vigo, and by 
his promptness and courage doing 
much to injure the morale of the 
Spanish naval defences, Drake pro- 
ceeded to the Cape de Verde Islands, 
taking almost unopposed possession 
of the chief town, Santiago, and plun- 
dering the islands for provisions and 
anything of value. From there he 
began his voyage towards the West 
Indies with the greatest armament 
which had ever crossed the Atlantic. 
-His plan was to weaken Spain by cut- 
ting off the chief sources of her 
wealth in the New World and to 
strengthen England by obtaining the 
mastery of the rich Caribbean ports 
from which it seemed a limitless 
stream of gold could be made to flow 
into the Old World. 

During the voyage to the West In- 
dies the men suffered severe losses 
from deaths due to an infectious sick- 
ness, and the squadron arrived some- 
what weakened in consequence at the 
Island of Dominica. This island is 
described by Thomas Cates, one of 
the company officers who wrote a 
complete account in Hakluyt's Voy- 
ages, as inhabited by "savage people, 
which goe all naked, their skinne col- 
oured with some painting of a reddish 
tawny, very personable and handsome 
strong men." From thence the 
squadron proceeded towards Hispani- 
ola (San Domingo), spending Christ- 
mas (1585) at anchor at the Island 
of St. Christopher (St. Kitts) where 
no people were found. 

The city of San Domingo in His- 
paniola was one of the chief strong- 
holds of the Spaniards in the West 
Indies, and so strongly built and for- 



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tified that no serious attack had previ- 
ously been attempted upon it. It was 
surrounded by walls and batteries of 
some strength and reputed to be gar- 
risoned by a powerful force, although 
the Spanish acounts state that about 
2,000 only of the 8,000 inhabitants 
were capable only of bearing arms 
and that in the actual defense of the 
city a few hundred only participated. 
Gates refers to the "glorious fame 
of the citie of S. Domingo, be- 
ing the ancientest and chiefe inhab- 
ited place in all the tract of country 
thereabouts." 

The squadron arrived at a safe 



landing-place about ten miles from 
the city, on New Year's day, 
1586, and notwithstanding the com- 
motion created in the city by 
the approach of the large flotilla, 
the troops were secretly landed with- 
out molestation under cover of the 
night. In the morning following, 
Drake made a feint at landing on the 
opposite side towards which Carleill 
with the men already landed was ap- 
proaching. The advantage gained by 
this manoeuvre was pushed home, and 
after a short engagement in the streets 
and market-place the victory was 
won. 



Extract from account published by Thomas Gates (v. Hakluyt's Voyages), entitled : 

"A SUMMA-RIE AND TRUE DISCOURSE OF SiR FRANCIS DRAKE'S 

West Indian voyage, begun in the yeere isss." 

This worthy knight for the service of his Prince and countrey having prepared 
his whole fleete, and gotten them down to Plimmouth in Devonshire, to the nurnber 
of five and twenty saile of ships and pinnesses, and having assembled of souldiers 
and mariners, to the number of 2300 in the whole, embarked them and hitpselfe at 
Plimmouth aforesaid, the 12 day of September 1585, being accompanied with these 
men of name and charge, which hereafter follow : 

Master Christopher Carleil Lieutenant General, a man of long experience in the 
warres as well by sea as land, who had formerly carried high offices in both kindes in 
many fights, which he discharged alwaies very happily, and with great good reputation. 

Anthonie Powel Sergeant Major. 

Captaine Matthew Morgan, and Captaine John Sampson, Corporals of the field. 

These officers had commandement over the rest of the land-Captaines, whose 
names hereafter follow : 

Captaine Anthony Plat. Captaine John Merchant, 

Captaine Edward Winter, Captaine William Cecill, 

Captaine John Goring, Captaine Walter Bigs, 

Captaine Robert Pew, Captaine John Hannam, 

Captaine George Barton, Captaine Richard Stanton. 

Captaine Martine Frobisher Viceadmirall, a man of great experience in sea-faring 
actions, who had carried the chiefe charge of many ships himselfe, in sundry voyages 
before, being now shipped in the Primrose. 

Captain Francis Knolles, Reereadmirall in the Galeon Leicester. 

Master Thomas Vennor, Captaine in the Elizabeth Bonadventure under the 
Generall. 

Master Edward Winter, Captaine in the Aide. 

Master Christopher Carleil the Lieutenant generall, Captaine of the Tygar. 

Henry White, Captaine of the sea Dragon. 

Thomas Drake, Captaine of the Thomas. 

Thomas Seelie, Captaine of the Minion. 

Baily, Captaine of the Barke Talbot. ^ 

Robert Crosse, Captaine of the Bark Bond. 

George Fortescue, Captaine of the Barke Bonner. 

Edward Carelesse, Captaine of the Hope. 

James Erizo, Captaine of the White Lyon. 

Thomas Moone, Captaine of the Vantage. 

John Vaughan, Captaine of the Drake. 

John Varney, Captaine of the George. 

John Martin, Captaine of the Benjamin. 

Edward Gihnan, Captaine of the Skout. 

Richard Hawkins, Captaine of the Galiot called the Ducke. 

Bitfield, Captaine of the Swallow. 




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The town being rather large for 
complete occupancy by the small num- 
ber of troops under Carleill, he was 
directed by Drake to intrench himself 
in the most important part of the town, 
the Spanish troops being then divided 
into two divisions, one which had fled 
to safety well outside of the city, and 
the other remaining in that part not 
invested by the English forces. 

Drake now demanded a large ran- 
som for the release of the town. 
During the negotiations he sent a 
negro boy with a flag of truce to the 
Spanish camp; the boy being met by 
a few Spanish officers was so wound- 
ed by one of them that he could barely 
crawl back within his own lines to 
die. This so inflamed the natural 
anger of Drake that in the first burst 
of his fury he had hanged, on the spot 
of the boy's death, two friars who 
were among the prisoners, and de- 
clared that until the cowardly Span- 
iard who killed the boy was publicly 
executed two more prisoners would 
be hanged daily. This demand was 
quickly met. The amount of the ran- 
som which the city, even with diffi- 
culty, could pay, was not so great as 
Drake had expected, and he had to be 
contented with twenty-five thousand 
ducats, , probably equivalent to about 
sixty thousand dollars of American 
money. In addition, all valuable 
property of a shape to permit of re- 
moval was taken aboard the ships, in- 
cluding from two to three hundred 
guns and ample stores of provisions. 
A few of the better vessels in the har- 
bor were taken and the remainder de- 
stroyed. 

Exhilarated by victory, and with his 
squadron in reinforced condition, 
Drake sailed the middle of February 
for Cartagena on the Spanish Main. 
It was now that the experience which 
he had gained in his earlier voyages 
stood him in good stead, for he could 
approach this difficult shore and har- 
bor with the confidence of an experi- 
enced pilot. 

The town of Cartagena had been 
founded a little more than fifty years 



before Drake's attack, and was 
already well fortified, although its sys- 
tem of walls and fortifications which 
were afterwards intended to make it 
impregnable, were not then wholly 
completed. Th6 town is situated at 
the eastern extremity of the harbor or 
Bay of Cartagena, on low level land. 
While -its southwestern side faces the 
harbor, its northwestern face is actu- 
ally on the open sea itself and the 
surf breaks near the base of strong 
walls on that side. The remaining 
boundary is largely made up of a 
great shallow lagoon almost connect- 
ing with the sea on the one side, and 
connecting with the harbor on the 
other. The harbor itself is made' 
nearly a closed basin by the Island of 
Tierra Bomba, at each end of which 
in Drake's time was an entrance for 
ships, the larger called Boca Grande 
being nearer the city, and the smaller 
and more difficult called Boca Chica 
being near the western end of the bay. 

The Boca Grande entrance was 
subsequently closed by - artificial 
means, which, when once effected, 
was greatly helped by the .natural 
drift of the sands. It has now been 
closed for all but the smallest boats 
for over two centuries. 

Cartagena, by reason of its magnifi-. 
cent harbor and its nearness to the 
great river Magdalena, which led 
down from the rich country in the in- 
terior, had become the storehouse 
of Spain in the New World, and the 
headquarters of all Spanish com- 
merce. Relying upon the reputation 
of Cartagena for strength to keep it- 
self from being attacked and having 
no conception that such an audacious 
attack upon his American possessions 
would be made, Philip had not had 
time to send out in advance of Drake's 
arrival any reinforcements. So that 
although w^arned in advance of the 
impending visit of Drake with his 
formidable squadron, the governor of 
Cartagena, Pedro Vique, could not 
depend on more than eleven or twelve 
hundred men all told for the defence 
of his city. This force was made up 



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of fifty lancers, four hundred and fifty 
harquebussiers, one hundred pikemen, 
twenty negro musketeers, four hun- 
dred India bowmen and one hundred 
and fifty harquebussiers who manned 
two galleys in the harbor. 

The entrance to the inner harbor 
was defended by a fort at the place 
now called Pastelillo, but otherwise 
there were no fortifications except 
those surrounding the city itself. 
The aproach to the inner harbor was 
further protected by chains, and the 
narrow neck of land reaching from 
the city to Boca Grande was defended 
by a stone breastwork armed with a 
few guns and several hundred men. 

Drake entered through Boca 
Grande between three and four in the 
afternoon without resistance. At 
nightfall he landed the troops under 
the command of Carleill close to Boca 
Grande. About midnight, having 
failed to find paths through the thick 
growth which covered the neck of 
land, they marched along the beach 
on the side towards the . sea, meeting 
only the slight resistance ofifered by a 
small body of horsemen who retired 
at the first volley. 

The sound of this slight engage- 
ment was a signal to Drake to order 
the carrying out of a pre-arranged 
plan, by which the ships attacked the 
fort at the entrance to the inner har- 
bor. This attack was a diversion and 
was not pressed to a successful con- 
clusion, as indeed would have been 
difficult in view of the narrowness of 
channel, the chains, and the well-sus- 
tained gun fire from the fort. 

During this attack by the ships the 
troops pressed forward against the 
breastworks, which consisted of a 
well-built stone wall with a ditch with- 
out and flankings covering every part. 
A small passing space was protected 
by wine-butts filled with earth, the 
whole mounted with six gun's and fur- 
ther protected by drawing into the 
harbor shore the two large galleys. 

Carleill forced the attack on the 
space protected by the wine-butts, and 
largely through the superiority of the 



English Dikes and armour a breach 
was made and quickly carried by 
storm. The defenders were forced 
into the city, where the streets were 
strongly barricaded. The Indians 
rendered active help to the Spaniards, 
fighting with poisoned arrows and 
with small sharp poisoned sticks about 
eighteen inches long, and so placed in 
the ground that contact with the poi- 
soned ends was difficult to avoid. 
Many of the Spanish leaders were 
killed and Drake was soon in posses- 
sion of the city. While Drake's idea 
had been to permanently hold Carta- 
gena and use it for a base from which 
to attack the other Spanish settlements, 
the reduction which he had already 
suflfered in his forces and the persist- 
ence of yellow fever among his men, 
changed his plans and he determined 
to exact the largest possible ransom 
and leave the place. At a general 
council of land captains held at Car- 
tagena on the twenty-seventh of Feb- 
ruary, it was resolved that it was in- 
expedient to proceed with the intended 
capture of Panama and it was re- 
solved to proceed home by the way of 
Florida. 

Drake demanded a ransom of £ioo,- 
GOO, but this sum was declared by the 
Spaniards impossible to be gotten to- 
gether and paid, and an amount equiv- 
alent to about £28,000 was tendered. 
In the meantime, notwithstanding va- 
rious courtesies exchanged between 
the higher officers on each side, 
much irritation appears to have 
arisen over the matter of the ransom, 
and a considerable part of the city 
was burned. Finally a ransom stated 
by Gates to have been 110,000 ducats, 
and by Spanish authorities to have 
been $400,000, was paid and the Eng- 
lish troops evacuated. Drake, how- 
ever, after leaving the city, insisted 
that an abbey or priory just outside 
had not been included in the terms of 
settlement, and continued to hold it 
until an additional sum of 1,000 
crowns was paid. 

Altogether the fleet had remained 
at Cartagena six weeks when it finally 



Bit Jfranria irak^ 



set sail the last of March, and was 
even then delayed by leaky vessels 
and did not arrive off Cape Anthony 
on the eastern end of Cuba until the 
twenty-seventh of April. Here the 
fleet took water and proceeded to the 
coast of Florida, where St. Augustine, 
and various smaller and less impor- 
tant places were captured. The fleet 
then sailed for Plymouth and arrived 
there the twenty-eighth of July, 1586. 

There were on this voyage a total 
of seven hundred and fifty men lost 
from all causes, the greater number 
being from disease. 

The total value of the booty gained 
was about i6o,ooo, not counting some 
two hundred and forty pieces of ord- 
nance, of which about two hundred 
pieces were of brass, including sixty- 
three from Cartagena. 

Drake had ably and bravely exe- 
cuted the task which had been given 
him and returned home with increased 
popularity and prestige. The actual 
injury to the king of Spain by the ex- 
pedition was less than the harm done 
to individuals in the Spanish posses- 
sions, a fact which served to create a 
hatred of the English which survived 
for generations. 



In the following year, 1587, when 
an invasion of England was again 
feared by Elizabeth, Drake was ap- 
pointed to command the English fleet 
which was immediately formed to pre- 
vent the "joining together of the king 
of Spain's fleet out of their several 
ports." He attacked Cadiz, where he 
destroyed thirty-three vessels and car- 
ried away others. After several other 
captures he returned to England, to 
be sent out again in July, 1588, as 
vice-admiral, under Lord Howard, of 
the fleet sent to intercept the "Spanish 
Armada," the history of which is too 
well-known to need repetition here. 
The next year Drake was in com- 
mand of an expedition to invade Spain 
and Portugal. After his return from 
this service he again served in Parlia- 
ment, but the sea once more claimed 
him in August, 1595, when he sailed, 
on what was to be his last voyage, for 
the West Indies with Sir John Hawk- 
ins as his vice-admiral. Hawkins died 
off Puerto Rico in November, and on 
the twenty-eighth of January, 1596, 
Drake himself died on board of his 
ship when off Nombre de Dios after a 
fortnight's illness in his cabin. 



Transcript from "a resolution of the Land-captaines, what course they think most expedient 

to be taken. Given at Cartagena the xxvij. 

of Februarie, 1585" 

Whereas it hath pleased the General! to demaund the opinions of his Captaines 
what course, they thinke most expedient to be now undertaken, the Land-Captaines 
being asembled by themselves together, and having advised hereupon, doe in three 
points deliver the same. , 

The first, touching the keeping of the towne against the force of the enemie, either 
that which is present, or that which may come out of Spaine. is answered thus : 

We holder opinion, that which this troope of men which we have presently with 
us in land-service, being victualled and munitioned, wee may well keepe the towne, 
albeit that of men able to answere present service, we have not above 700. The 
residue being some 150 men by reason of their hurts and sicknesse are altogether 
unable to stand us in anystead ; wherefore hereupon the Sea-captaines are likewise to 
give their resolution, how they will undertake the safetie and service of the Shippes 
upon the arrivall of any Spanish Fleete. 

The second poynt we make to be this, whether it bee meete to goe presently home- 
ward, or els to continue further tryall of our fortune in undertaking such like enter- 
prises as we have done already, and thereby to seeke after that bountifull masse of 
treasure for recompence of our travailes, which was generally expected at our comming 
forth of England : wherein we answere : 

That it is well knowen how both we and the souldiers are entred into this action 
as voluntarie men, without any imprest or gage from her Majestic or any body els. 
and forasmuch as we have hitherto discharged the parts of honest men, so that now 



^tr IFranrtH irak^ 



by the great blessing and favour of our good God there have bin taken three such 
notable townes, wherein by the estimation of all men would have been found some 
very great treasures, knowing that S. lago was the chiefe citie of all the 
Islands and traffiques thereabouts, S. Domingo the chiefe citie of Hispaniola, and the 
head government not only of that Hand, but also of Cuba, and of all the Hands about 
it, as also of such inhabitations of the firme land, as were next unto it, & a place that 
is both magnificently builded, and interteineth great trades of merchandise; and now 
lastly the citie of Cartagena, which cannot be denied to be one of the chiefe places of 
most especiall importance to the Spaniard of all the cities which be on this side of the 
West India; we doe therefore consider, that since all these cities, with their goods and 
prisoners taken in them, and the ransoms of the said cities being all put together, are 
found farre short to satisfie that expectation which by the generality of the enterprisers 
was first conceived: And being further advised of the slendernesse of our strengthe, 
whereunto we be now reduced, as well in respect of the small number of able bodies, 
as also not a little in regard of the slacke disposition of the greater part of those which 
remaine, very many of the better mindes and men being either consumed by death, or 
weakened by sicknes and hurts : And lastly, since that as yet there is not laid downe 
to our knowledge any such enterprise as may seeme convenient to be undertaken with 
such few as we are presently able to make, and withall of such certaine likelihoode. as 
with Gods good successe which it may please him to bestow upon us, the same may 
promise to yeeld us any sufficient contentment : We doe therefore conclude hereupon, 
that it is better to hold sure as we may the honour already gotten, and with the same 
to returne towards our gracious Soveraigne and Countrey, from whenece if it shall 
please her Majestic to set us foorth againe with her orderly meanes and intertainment, 
we are most ready and willing to goe through with anything that the uttermost of our 
strength and indevour shall be able to reach unto ; but therewithal we doe advise, and 
protest that it is farre from our thoughts, either to refuse, or so much as to seeme 
to be wearie of any thing, which for the present shalbe further required or directed 
to be done by us from our Generall. 

The third and last poynt is concerning the ransome of this citie of Cartagena, for 
the which, before it was touched with any fire, there was made an offer of some xxviij. 
thousand pounds sterling. 

Thus much we utter herein as our opinions agreeing (so it be done in good sort) 
to accept this offer aforesayde, rather then to break off by standing still upon our 
demaunds of one hundred thousand poundes, which seemes a matter impossible to bee 
performed for the present by them, and to say trueth, wee may now with much honour 
and reputation better be satisfied with that summe offered by them at the first (if they 
will now bee contented to give it) then we might at that time with a great deale more, 
inasmuch as we have taken our full pleasure both in the uttermost sacking and spoyling 
of all their householde goods and merchandize, as also in that we have consumed' and 
ruined a great part of their Towne with fire. And thus much further is considered 
herein by us, that as there bee in the Voyage a great many poore men. who have will- 
ingly adventured their lives and travailes, and divers amongst them having spent their 
apparell and such other little provisions as their small meanes might have given them 
leave to prepare, which being done upon such good and allowable intention as this 
action hath alwayes caried with it, meaning, against the Spanyard our greatest and 
most dangerous enemie : so surely we cannot but have an inward regardes so farre as 
may lye in us, to helpe either in all good sort towards the satisfaction of this their 
expectation, and by procuring them some little benefite to incourage them and to nour- 
ish this readie and willing disposition of theirs both in them and in others by their 
example against any other time of like occasion. But because it may bee supposed 
that herein wee forgette not the private benefite of our selves, and are thereby the 
rather mooved to incline our selves to this composition, wee doe therefore thinke good 
for the clearing of ourselves of all such suspition, to declare heereby, that what part 
or portion soever it bee of this ransome or composition for Cartagena, which should 
come unto us, wee doe freely give and bestowe the same wholy upon the poore men, 
who have remayned with us in the Voyage, meaning as well the Sayler as the Souldier. 
wishing with all our hearts it were such or so much as might seeme a sufficient 
rewarde for their painfull indevour. And for the firme confirmation thereof, we have 
thought meete to subsigne these presents with our owne hands in the place and time 
aforesayd. Captaine Christopher Carleill Lieutenant Generall. 

Captaine Goring. 
Captaine Sampson, Captaine Powell &c. 



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